azmat naushad asif

Sleeping Beauty - Poem by azmat naushad asif

She stands under a street lamp In not so decent clothes Her make up more to hide Than to highlight She waits for visitors To visit Desperately She has several mouths to feed Including her own Her belly rumbles As a car slows down beside her How much? the man asks To sleep with me? She smiles a smile To fake her worth... For one hour She adds and substracts The fees to be paid The rent to be given The medicines to be bought And what notSome grocery shopping she has to do And buy school dresses For her baby who has been promoted Some makeup to maintain herself Some protections so that she does not end herself Several mouths she has to feed Then she substracts and sees That what's been paid is not enough The hour ends And she is on the road To become a sleeping beauty again.